Women's Track & Field

Matadors Set to Begin Multi-Event Portion of Big West Track & Field Championships

Cal State Northridge will send five athletes to the opening events of the 2012 Big West Track & Field Championships this weekend as a trio of Matador men will compete in the decathlon while a pair of CSUN women will compete in the heptathlon.

The first of seven heptathlon events will kick off with the 100 meter hurdles Friday at 2 p.m. The first of 10 decathlon events, the 100 meters, is slated for 2:30 p.m. Friday. All events take place at Anteater Stadium on the campus of UC Irvine.

Northridge will be represented by Olympia Jewett and Jordan DuFault in the heptathlon. Jewett comes in with the fourth-best heptathlon total in the Big West this season after scoring 4,878 points at the season-opening Northridge Invitational. DuFault also posted her season-best of 4,131 points at the same meet and ranks eighth in the conference coming into the championships.

Both Jewett and DuFault have one Big West heptathlon under their belt as Jewett finished 11th (4,488 ponts) and DuFault 12th (4,196 points) at last seasons championship meet. Northridge claimed two of the top three spots in 2011 as Sherrina Lofton won the crown as best all-around athlete with 5,371 points, just 262 points ahead of teammate Desirae Gonder who was third (5,109).

CSUN has three Big West heptathlon championships to its credit as La'Shana Verdon won in 2006 and Lofton won titles in 2009 and 2011.

The eight-time Big West champion Matador women look to get off to a good start as they seek their seventh conseutive conference crown which would match Utah State (1993-1999) for most consecutive women's championships in conference history.

In the decathlon, Derrick Harris, Donovan Toban and Kevin Finley look to get the Matador men's team off to a solid start. Harris comes into the championships ranked fourth with a season-best of 6,465 points followed closely by Toban in fifth (6,385) and Finley in sixth (6,380). All three achieved their season-best points total at the season-opening Northridge Invitational back in March.

All three will be making their Big West decathlon debut as the Matador men did not have an entrant in last season's decathlon as both Toban and Finley were injured.

The last CSUN male to compete in the decathlon at the conference championships was Robert Robinson in 2010 and he came away with the Matadors' one and only title in the Big West event. Robinson scored a school record 7,526 points in winning the 2010 title. Chris Kanowsky won the decathlon in 1995 when Northridge competed as a member of the America West Conference.

The Matador men are coming off a fifth-place finish at last season's Big West Championships after winning back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010.